Infamous day allows us to remember a generation

In a post-9/11 world, it sometimes is difficult to remember the original "date which will live in infamy" happened almost 60 years earlier in an area far from the East Coast.

In the early hours of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, planes of the Imperial Japanese Navy bombed the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This was despite repeated talks between U.S. and Japanese diplomats. The U.S. declared war on Japan the next day and was fully involved in World War II soon after.

We all know how that story ended. The Allied powers, including the U.S., Britain and Soviet Union, won the hard-fought war against the Nazis and fascism.

Time has an interesting way of fading memories. People who were changed forever by the bombing of Pearl Harbor are growing older and, in many cases, have died. With them go many memories and the first-hand accounts of what happened that fateful day.

Fortunately, we have many written and oral accounts of what happened. Remembering what happened allows us to honor the memory of the people who gave their lives at Pearl Harbor and in the war that followed.

Men and women who were coming of age at the end of the worst economic depression the United States ever has faced were called to duty to their country and pressed into service despite the plans they had for their lives. They understood their plans had to be put on hold to answer the country's call. They had to fight in a war that had to be won. Their sacrifice helped the U.S. rise to the level of global leader.

It is not the tragedy of a single morning that we mark on this day. Pearl Harbor became a defining moment for an entire generation, one that would become known as "The Greatest Generation" for what it had to endure and what it stepped up to overcome.

Honoring Pearl Harbor Day is more than remembering a historical event. It was the first moment in a series of moments that helped define a country, a generation and the future of the U.S. It's about a moment that saw the awakening of a new American spirit that, despite our struggles and disagreements, still burns bright to this day.

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Infamous day allows us to remember a generation

In a post-9/11 world, it sometimes is difficult to remember the original 'date which will live in infamy' happened almost 60 years earlier in an area far from the East Coast. In the early hours of